


Leverage, Season 2, Episode 13, The Future Job

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Leverage
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s02e13 The Future Job, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 02, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24499594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 5





	Leverage, Season 2, Episode 13, The Future Job

Open to the BGotW, a phony psychic played by Luke Perry, scamming a grieving pregnant woman. Her husband recently died.

The only other things I’ve seen Perry in is Oz and Riverdale, and this episode shows how much range he had as an actor. I was meh on his character on Oz, but I really liked him on Riverdale. Fred was a genuinely good man and father who had realistic flaws. Here, his character is charismatic, and it’s shown he’s genuinely good at working people in addition to the other tricks he uses. He’s a sleazeball, but when he’s interacting with his marks, I’m not wondering why they aren’t picking this up.

After the woman leaves, BGotW and his devoted assistant talk about how much more money they can get from her.

Meanwhile, the brother of the pregnant woman is talking to Nate in the bar about his sister being scammed. He’s worried for her mental health and the preborn baby’s future since she’s already spent all of her husband’s life insurance policy and might end up selling her house in order to keep talking to BGotW.

However, he does make it clear he’s not asking Nate to get the money she’s spent back. “All I want is my sister back.”

Next, Parker and Nate go to one of the BGotW’s shows. Hardison and Tara are in a nearby van, and Eliot’s managed to get backstage. During the show, Parker is singled out, and she’s reduced to tears when he talks about her dead little brother.

In the van, Hardison declares, “He should be shot.”

At headquarters, they all carefully gather around Parker, and it’s broken down how BGotW used body language and micro-expressions to do a cold read. Then, it’s explained how he did hot reads by using employees who research and gather information before and during the show and give their findings to him via earbud.

She asks if killing him is on the table, and Eliot hesitantly offers he could.

Nate says they’re going to expose him as a fraud instead.

Over to BGotW, he’s talking to a network executive. Next, he’s being a jerk to his devoted assistant.

I’m curious about the assistant. There’s nothing homoerotic about his devotion, and he knows for a fact BGotW is completely bogus. Yet, he seems to have genuine respect for BGotW and might even truly like him despite the jerkiness. Maybe it’s because of the jerkiness?

The assistant informs him there’s been some cancellations.

Cue BGotW going to see his new competition, Tara. She’s a granola girl who gives free psychic readings. Her story is she had a brain tumour removed, and once it was, the spirits started talking to her.

There’s a part where she has him feel a scar on her head, and the others establish they didn’t give her said scar.

I don’t know if she has a scar or not, but it’s possible, even with someone like him who’s well-versed in the tricks, she could have just put his hand on her head, and hearing about the scar, he felt one even if there wasn’t one.

There’s a funny bit where Eliot is disapproving of Nate sending BGotW a small electric shock and declaring Parker agreeing with Nate isn’t a good thing, because, it’s not as if he made an offer to kill BGotW on her behalf earlier. On this note, I’m not sure if Eliot is at a point where he would truly kill someone outside of immediate defence for the others right now, but I do think, eventually, he will get to a point where, if either of his spouses or someone else in Team Leverage asked him to, he would.

Tara does a future reading, and there’s a montage of it coming true. Also, he ran out on his bill at a diner instead of calling his devoted assistant to bring some money for him. Shame!

The next morning, he apparently slept outside of Tara’s coffeeshop all night, and no one either checked on him or called the police? He wants her to work for him, and she refuses. He brings up the fake credit report he found on her. She has tons of medical bills, no steady income, and he promises they can help people together until she gets back on her feet, and then, if she wants to leave, he won’t stop her.

She agrees.

Next, the devoted assistant is kicked out of the control room to make way for Tara.

During the show, Team Leverage feeds Tara information to feed BGotW.

Unfortunately for Team Leverage, their con is interrupted by BGotW getting kidnapped by thugs who think he’s really psychic.

In headquarters, they manage to find out where he was taken, and then, set out to rescue him so that they can destroy his life. Heh.

When they arrive, Tara just strolls into the room full of armed gunmen to ask if they’re going to be keeping BGotW for long. BGotW asks how she found him, and she answers, “The spirits told me. They said you needed my help.”

It’s revealed the head thug is trying to locate some money his dead partner hid.

Tara leads them to a storage facility, and Team Leverage works. In one of the units, the head thug pulls a gun on BGotW, and BGotW confesses to being a fraud.

In response, stepping out of the unit, Tara locks them in.

Somehow, this unit was connected to a studio audience, and everyone in it, including the grieving pregnant sister, witnessed the confession. BGotW and the thugs or, at least, the head one are arrested.

Fraudulent psychics in real life have been exposed without being arrested. Some people have written tell-all books admitting to once doing what BGotW has done without, to my knowledge, facing legal consequences. So, I’m not sure how realistic this part is, but I’m glad he was exposed.

Later, the client and his sister thank Nate and Tara, and Nate makes it clear she shouldn’t blame herself for falling for BGotW’s tricks. The siblings start to leave, but Parker gives the brother money for his sister and the baby. He hugs her. Aw.

After he leaves, it’s revealed Parker and Hardison found the thugs’ hidden money, and Eliot is annoyed this is how he found out they did.

Fin.


End file.
